“The new Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business is intended to be part of a larger vision for the future of the university and will serve to emphasize the value UD places on its students by providing a truly student-centered building,” said Richard Miller, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, higher education regional practice leader and principal with Perkins+Will. “The building will assist recruiting and retention of students and faculty by promoting the UD brand; highlighting the history, culture and aspirations of the university; and serve as a welcoming and impressive facility commensurate with a major institution.”

The business school’s new $13.6 million home, scheduled for completion in July 2015, will introduce a variety of social spaces for students, staff and faculty to use at the start of the fall semester. Miller said the building is organized with classrooms on every floor to encourage student access throughout, while also offering public spaces study lounge areas and access to food service.

“The design encourages social and scholarly interactions among students, faculty, staff and administration with a wide variety of formal and informal gathering spaces and multipurpose meeting rooms placed strategically throughout the building,” he added.

The building features a Stock Trading Room, offering digital capabilities for students to analyze real-time financial market data. There are also team rooms, which provide business workshop space for groups of students, as well as technology stations designed for students to gather and work together. The building also includes a 64-seat, multi-use flexible learning environment for events and functions.

As for classroom design, smaller classrooms were preferred, Miller said, keeping with the UD culture of 25- to 30-student settings (twenty-eight seats are standard). There are also flexible classrooms to accommodate hybrid classes that take place both online and in classrooms.

The flexible learning environments were also designed to accommodate future technologies, while still incorporating a lot of the latest technologies. For instance, teaching walls in the classrooms have smart projectors. The Stock Trading Room also has the latest technologies, featuring three computer terminals with Bloomberg Professional access that allows users to monitor and real-time trades with up-to-the-minute information. Plus, power outlets for laptops and Wi-Fi will be available throughout the building.

The project’s sustainability goal is to achieve LEED Silver certification. One requirement was that the building would be energy efficient in both summer and winter, when temperatures are drastically different. As such, the building is designed to control light and solar heat gain, as well as to provide daylight to a majority of the interior spaces, according to Miller. The building is also required to conserve water, as well as provide easy-to-understand wayfinding for students.

“The design recognizes the uniqueness of the college’s programs and creates opportunities for the highest level of delivery and resource development while encouraging the engagement of local and global business,” Miller said. “The building conveys a sense of community and an image that reinforces its brand, fosters identity advancement and reinforces the university’s Catholic faith–based educational experience.”

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Davis Architects designed the building, while Hoar Construction is serving as the general contractor. Both companies are locally based.

The new building will be situated on the northeast corner of campus near the law school and a men’s residence hall. It will feature an Investment Portfolio Room, two computer teaching labs, 11 classrooms, interactive breakout rooms, a student business incubator and a meeting room available for up to 400 guests, allowing the university to now host on-campus events.

The new business school joins several others — the , the and University at , to name a few — that are debuting across the nation.

“To stay competitive with other universities in drawing top talent from around the nation, Samford must continue striving for excellence in its offerings,” said Scott McKaig, a senior business major from Fort Wayne, Ind., in a statement. “A major part of this effort is the provision of state-of-the-art technology and facilities for students to engage the ever-changing world of trade."

Construction has already caused traffic and parking issues on campus, so a temporary parking lot has been added adjacent to Beeson University Center to help ease the situation. A temporary shuttle around the campus is also in place to assist students and employees to get to and from remote parking to the central campus.

The current business school is housed in Dwight Beeson Hall, which was built in 1970. When the school moves into its new space, the hall will be reassigned to other university departments. The school currently has 477 undergraduate students and 139 students enrolled in graduate programs.

Samford alumnus and Birmingham business executive Gary Cooney announced in April that he would pledge at least $12.5 million to the estimated $30 million building, which has yet to be named.

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The gift was formally announced Thursday, Oct. 4, as part of a ceremony to kick off fundraising efforts for the $60 million, six-story, 166,000-square-foot building. The KU endowment is in charge of the fundraising plan for this structure, working with alumni and other friends of the university.

“An outstanding School of Business is an integral part of every university,” John B. Dicus, chairman, president and CEO of Capitol Federal Savings, said in a statement. “We’re proud to play a role in making this building a reality. With this gift, we are giving students at the University of Kansas the opportunities they need to be successful in the business world.”

The Dicus family has a long history with the university, which likely explains why the company’s foundation singled out KU for this funding. Dicus earned his bachelor’s degree and masters in business administration from KU in the 80s. His father, John C. Dicus, chairmen emeritus of Capitol Federal, earned a bachelor’s in business from the university in the 1950s, and both their wives also graduated from the school, along with other family members. The foundation has been focused on higher education from its inception, as former chairman Henry Bubb served on the Kansas Board of Regents. He’s also Jack Dincus’s father in law, making the family connection with KU even stronger.

Though this contribution will bring the university much closer to groundbreaking, the project is currently in a holding pattern until the entire $60 million in funding arrives. The school hopes to begin work in early 2014 and complete the project by autumn of 2015. University officials are particularly excited about that timeline because it would make the grand opening coincide with the school’s 150th anniversary.

The new building will be located near Robinson Gymnasium. The university plans to relocate a group of tennis courts that currently stand in the footprint of the planned structure. The school of business will move its entire program into the new building when it’s constructed, leaving Summerfield Hall open for other functions.

Colleges often use new facilities in recruiting and fundraising efforts. A business school targets one of the most marketable majors for universities right now. University representatives predicted the new structure would help the school boost the number of people receiving undergraduate degrees in that major from 500 to 750 annually and increase graduate degrees from 280 to 350 per year. The new building will double the business school’s available space for faculty and students. Current business students still take many classes at Summerfield Hall, the same building John Dicus attended lectures in when he was a student.

“We physically don’t have the space for the students interested in studying business,” said Neeli Bendapudi, dean of the KU School of Business, in an interview with The Wichita Eagle. “Interest is growing. A fourth of the students coming in say they want to study business.”

The Capitol Federal Foundation was established in 1999 and has donated $34 million in funding to various organizations in Kansas, including prior philanthropic relationships with KU.

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